Raman Imaging

Raman imaging is a powerful technique for generating detailed chemical images based on a sample’s Raman spectrum. A complete spectrum is acquired at each and every pixel of the image, and then interrogated to generate false colour images based on material composition, phase, crystallinity and strain.

In standard operation HORIBA’s confocal Raman microscopes are diffraction limited, with achievable spatial in the order of 250-300nm (depending on laser wavelength and objective) – features smaller than this can still be detected but without true spatial information. Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) moves beyond this diffraction limit, allowing a spatial resolution of below 25 nm to be routinely measured on TERS-enabled Raman-AFM systems.

Raman image of graphene, illustrating distribution of monolayer, bilayer and trilayer regions on a silicon substrate.

Standard point-by-point mapping affords the ultimate sensitivity for materials with extremely low Raman scattering properties, and additionally allows high resolution, large spectral range capability. Typical acquisition times for such maps can be in the order of 1s-10s per point (or longer), and thus total measurement times can be significant.

EasyNavThe new EasyNav technology revolutionizes the navigation through your image and for all sample surfaces even very rough. It provides real-time 3D topography images, without any compromise on spatial and spectral resolution of HORIBA's Raman microscopes.